upgraded on February 18, 2010

Who Is God?

God is love. (1 John 4:8b NIV)

In attempting to understand and describe God, my observations will be less adequate, and more incomplete than if I were attempting to describe the world ocean based upon my microscopic observations of two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to one oxygen atom (H20 - a single water molecule).  However, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God, I will attempt to describe the who, what, when, where, why, and how of God that I can observe.

Job 36:26-33 (NIV) How great is God--beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out. 27 "He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams; 28 the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind. 29 Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion? 30 See how he scatters his lightning about him, bathing the depths of the sea. 31 This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance. 32 He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark. 33 His thunder announces the coming storm; even the cattle make known its approach.

The Astyanax mexicanus is a species of fish that lives in caves where there is no light off the coast of Mexico.  The eyes of the embryo start to degenerate soon after the egg begins to form, and the fish are born blind.  On the surface, where there is light, the exact same species of fish develop normal vision.  

Contrast the blind Astyanax mexicanus to the creatures who have eyes covering them referenced in Revelation 4:6-8, and Ezekiel 10:12.

Revelation 4:6-8 (NIV)  Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

Ezekiel 10:12 (NIV) Their entire bodies, including their backs, their hands and their wings, were completely full of eyes, as were their four wheels.

The four living creatures in Heaven who are covered with eyes, are created beings who have adapted physically in order to comprehend more light. They have been in the presence of the Lord God their entire existence and they constantly circle and stare at Him in order to see more of Him.  They have developed more eyes in order to see the Lord God better.  In their constant focus and worship, they constantly see new things about the Lord God that overwhelm them in His magnificence, and they cannot but cry out in awe:

Revelation 4:8 (NIV)  "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

God is MAGNIFICENT.  Consider everything that we appreciate as physically beautiful; the Hope Diamond, the Crown Jewels from every kingdom, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, summer rain, Texas, a young woman... God is infinitely more beautiful. Consider everything that we appreciate as good; a mother's love, the admiration and respect of a friend, a selfless and giving person... Whatever we consider is good, God is infinitely better than that. Consider everything that we appreciate as powerful; the sun, nature in the form of hurricane force winds, tornadoes, tidal waves, nuclear energy... God is infinitely more powerful. Whatever man can conceive, God is infinitely greatest, biggest, best, pure, all powerful, all intelligent, ever present, the beginning, the end, most creative...ad infinitum.

With the Holy Spirit of God's assistance, we may begin by reviewing the Holy Word of God about God. 

Exodus 19:16-25 (NIV)  On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, 19 and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. 20 The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up 21 and the Lord said to him, "Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. 22 Even the priests, who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them." 23 Moses said to the Lord, "The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, 'Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.' " 24 The Lord replied, "Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord, or he will break out against them." 25 So Moses went down to the people and told them.

Isaiah 6:1-10 (NIV)  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, " Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" He said, "Go and tell this people:" 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."

Ezekiel 1:1-28 (NIV)  In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month--it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin--the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the Lord was upon him. I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north--an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was that of a man, but each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had the hands of a man. All four of them had faces and wings, and their wings touched one another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved. Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a man, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out upward; each had two wings, one touching the wing of another creature on either side, and two wings covering its body. Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went. The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning. As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like chrysolite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not turn about as the creatures went. Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around. When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked like an expanse, sparkling like ice, and awesome. Under the expanse their wings were stretched out one toward the other, and each had two wings covering its body. When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings. Then there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.

Ezekiel 8: 2-4 (NIV)  I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man. From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal. He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance to the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood. And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain.

Revelation 1:8-18  (NIV)  "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea." I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man," dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades."

Revelation 4: 2-6a (NIV)  At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. 6 Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

Revelation 19:11-16 (NIV)  I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter."  He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords.

Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV)  Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

THE REFLECTION OF GOD IS CLEARLY SEEN IN HIS UNIVERSE.

Romans 1:18-20 (NIV)  The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV)  Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

"I could prove God statistically. Take the human body alone - the chances that all the functions of an individual would just happen is a statistical monstrosity." - George H. Gallup, American pollster (1901-1984)

In accordance with God's Holy Word, any person who looks at God's universe and says there is no God, is a complete fool. That person is not an intellectual.  That person is not even close to being smart.  That person may believe themselves to be smart, or they may like you to believe that they are smart, but in the language of today, that person is literally an idiot.

Psalms 53:1b (NIV)  The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."

GOD IS ETERNAL.  Before the beginning, God was, is, and will be.  God never had a beginning.  Before the beginning of the Seven Thousand Years of Measured Time, God was.  God is "I AM".  God will never have an end.  Upon the completion of the Seven Thousand Years of Measured Time, God will still be.   God is from everlasting to everlasting, from infinite to infinite.  Before anything there is God. He was, is, and will be God alone.

Genesis 1:1a (KJV)  In the beginning God

GOD IS THE CREATOR.  The two most fundamental classifications eternally are Creator and creation.  God is the Creator, everything else is creation.

Genesis 1:1-2 (KJV) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

GOD IS A SPIRIT.

Genesis 1:1-2 (NIV)  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

GOD IS THE WAY. - If we want to go to God, there is no way but through the Blood of Jesus Christ.

John 14:6 (NIV)  Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

GOD IS THE TRUTH. - God has the answer to every question, and God has no question.  Humanity's great thinkers of all time have only Socratic questions and speculations of answers. God does not have one single question and God has all the answers.

GOD IS THE LIFE. - Jesus Christ is the creator of life.

John 1:1-3 (NIV)  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

GOD IS THE SUSTAINER OF LIFE.  Life is a mystical force that cannot be explained. All life on earth comes from dust and will return to dust.  Life is what distinguishes all living matter from dust.

Genesis 3:19 (NIV)  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

Life comes from God, and is sustained by God. Life is a reflection of God.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NIV)  Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

The Moon has no light of it's own, it can only reflect the light of the sun. Jesus Christ has no light of His own, Jesus Christ reflects the light of God the Father. "Born Again" Children of God have no light of their own.  Through faith in Jesus Christ, "Born Again" Children of God are properly aligned with God the Father, consequently, "Born Again" Children of God also reflect the light and love of God the Father.  

Living humans may reflect life, but humans cannot create life.  A living human may reflect life through reproduction, but no human can give life to something that is dead, and a dead human cannot make himself live.  In order for humans to sustain their life, humans must feed upon something that was, or is alive.  Every single thing that humans eat for nourishment was at one time alive.  Humans cannot create love anymore than humans can create life.  Humans may reflect the love of God outward from themselves, but humans cannot create love.  If humans could create love, humans could create life.  Both love and life come from God.

GOD IS JEHOVAH-ELYON. - Most High - Psalm 7:17, Psalm 47:2, Psalm 97:9

GOD IS JEHOVAH-JIREH. - Our Provider - Genesis 22:14

GOD IS JEHOVAH- MEKADDISHKEN. - Our Sanctifier - Exodus 31:13, Leviticus 20:8, Leviticus 21:8, Leviticus 22:32, Ezekiel 20:12

GOD IS JEHOVAH-NISSI. - Our Banner - Exodus 17:15

GOD IS JEHOVAH-RAAH. - Our Shepherd - Psalm 23:1

GOD IS JEHOVAH-ROPHEKA. - Our Healer - Exodus 15:26

GOD IS JEHOVAH-SABAOTH. - Our Protector - 1 Samuel 1:3

GOD IS JEHOVAH-SHALOM. - Our Peace - Judges 6:24

GOD IS JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH. - The One Who Is With Us Everywhere - Ezekiel 48:35

GOD IS JEHOVAH-TSID-KENU. - Our Righteousness - Jeremiah 23:6, Jeremiah 33:16

GOD IS OMNIPRESENT.  God is everywhere.

Psalms 139:7-10 (NIV)  Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

GOD IS OMNIPOTENT.   God has all power. When God said "Let there be light," God's order went out from God's mouth in every direction at the speed of light.  God's order continues expanding out in every direction today, 6,000 years later.  Scientist have observed that our universe is expanding in every direction at the speed of light.  The cause is God's single spoken command.  GOD IS IN-COMPREHENDIBLE POWER.  All power comes from and is a reflection of God. Power is created through the release of energy. The energy we are able to direct is because of our limited knowledge of the perfect cause and effect that God imposed on God's universe.  Steam energy is created because of the expansion of water into a gas when water is heated; a perfectly consistent thermal reaction.  Hydrocarbon energy, or gasoline, diesel, kerosene etc., is effective because of a release of energy during combustion.  Combustion is the release of energy during a chemical reaction.  No one in the world completely understands electricity. We know how it acts because electricity acts the exact same way every single time.  Nuclear energy is the energy that is released due to cause and effect when man destabilizes an element. A nuclear reaction is from the cause and effect of the elements as they re-stabilize themselves.  Energy is the life of motion. Energy is from God and because of God.  Life comes from God and is sustained by God.  Order comes from God and is sustained by God.  Love comes from God and is sustained by God.

GOD IS OMNISCIENT.  God has all knowledge. God knew before God ever created man, that man would sin.

When you combine the characteristics of God's omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, and eternity, then we become aware that God knows every single particle of every single atom in every single cell and its complete history since before time began.  God knows how the particles will react in God's perfect order-cause and effect universe, so God knows where the atoms will be in the future.  God knows the atoms because they are from God and because of God. 

"Given for one instant an intelligence which could comprehend all the forces by which nature is animated and the respective positions of the beings which compose it, if moreover this intelligence were vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in the same formula both the movements of the largest bodies in the universe and those of the lightest atom; to it nothing would be uncertain, and the future as the past would be present to its eyes." - Pierre Simon de Laplace 1749-1827

GOD CANNOT TOLERATE SIN.

Habbakuk 1:13a (NIV)  Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.

GOD PREDESTINED BEFORE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD TO BRING MAN BACK TO GOD THROUGH THE BLOOD SACRIFICE OF JESUS CHRIST.

Ephesians 1:4-6 (NIV)  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

God created a plan where sinful man could have man's sins atoned for, in order for man to come back into a relationship with God, in order for man to enjoy God's complete perfection.  God predestined to make a way for man to come back to God through the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. God chose Jesus Christ as a Blood Substitution-Sacrifice before the creation of the world in order to allow man to come back into a relationship with God. 

1 Peter 1:18-20 (NIV)  For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

Revelation 13:8 (NIV)  All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.

Matthew 25:34 (NIV)  "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world."

Acts 2:23 (NIV) This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

Ephesians 1:5-12 (NIV)  In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will--to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

GOD IS PERFECT.

Matthew 5:48 (NIV) "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

If God received any benefit at all from God's creation, ANYTHING AT ALL, we could rightfully conclude that God had a selfish motive for creating.  If God has ANY hint of selfishness in God at all, that would reveal that God is not PERFECT.

Prior to creation, God knew that man would sin.

God knew the price that God would have to pay within God's perfect order to effect man's redemption. 

GOD KNEW THAT GOD WOULD RECEIVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OUT OF IT! 

Because God is Love; God created and effected a redemption plan for man anyway, and GOD'S PERFECT PLAN REQUIRED GOD'S CRUCIFIXION OF HIMSELF.

WOW - WHAT A WONDERFUL GOD!

Those in Heaven will spend eternity learning more about God and becoming more like Him. The desire of a person to become more like God is brilliant genius on the part of the person, because God is Perfect. He is God. 

GOD IS PERFECTLY CONSISTENT.

In order for man to truly love God, man had to have the option to not love God. God is a gentleman and He never forces Himself on any person who does not desire Him.  Love can never be forced. Unless man had a free-will with the option to not love, then man could never really love. Man without a free-will would simply be a puppet following the directions of the puppet master.  So God created man with a free-will to love or not to love, to sin or not to sin.

God's perfect will is what God desires to happen.  God's permissive will is what God allows to happen.  God allows little children to be raped by Roman Catholic Priests, just as God allows the horrific sin of  abortion, because if God completely stopped those horrible sins, in His perfect consistency, God would stop all sin.  If God stopped all sin, man could not sin.  If man could not sin, man would not have a free-will to sin or to not sin.

GOD IS GENEROUS.  God created man out of God’s complete generosity.  Did YOU ever see or know something really awesome, and want to share it with someone?  God who is completely, perfectly awesome wanted to share Himself with man, as a benefit to man.  Because of God's great generosity, God decided to benefit man by sharing Himself with man.  God created man in God's image with a spirit so that man might have spiritual intercourse with God. The circumcision of the flesh that was given by God to Abraham, and is required on the eighth day of life, and consequently well prior to physical intercourse; is a fore-glimpse of the circumcision of the heart given that is given by the Holy Spirit of God, and is required prior to spiritual intercourse with God.  God is Love, and the primary focus of God’s love is man.  Man was created in God's image with a free-will to worship and have spiritual intercourse with God. God wants to have spiritual intercourse with man, solely for man's benefit.  This is infinitely generous on God's part.  God loves man, and wants man to be able to KNOW God, and thereby worship and love God.  This worship and communion with God is totally for man's benefit, as God has no selfish motive. 

It is perfect and complete charity for God to reveal Himself to man.  It is the greatest charity ever, in that the eternal greatest value (God), was given to the eternal greatest need (man's need of God); through the eternal highest price (God gave Himself), without any cost whatsoever to man, and without any benefit whatsoever to God.

Consider the person or living being that YOU like the most in the entire world.  Perhaps it could even be a pet, a cat or a dog.  Have YOU ever considered why YOU like that person or animal so much?  It is because YOU believe that the person or animal likes YOU.

Now consider that God is Love.  His Love is infinite, consistent and independent.  God Loved YOU infinitely before YOU were born.  God Loves YOU irrespective of whether YOU Love Him, or even whether YOU believe in God's existence.  God Loves YOU in spite of how awful, godless and wicked YOU may be.  God's Love is perfect charity.  No one deserves God's Love.

God's Love cannot be increased.  If YOU establish communion with God, and live a Holy Life, and become filled with the Holy Spirit of God; God will not Love YOU any more than God Loved YOU when you lived a wicked and sinful life. 

Job 35:6-8 (NIV) If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many, what does that do to him? 7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand? 8 Your wickedness affects only a man like yourself, and your righteousness only the sons of men.

God's Love does not change  What changes?  The change is that YOU Love God.  Does God personally benefit when YOU Love Him?  No.  God loves YOU when YOU are in sin:

Romans 5:8 (NIV) But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God loves YOU after YOU leave a life of sin.  Who changes?  YOU change.  YOU are benefited in that YOU Love God.  YOUR communion with, and worship of God is totally for YOUR benefit.  God has provided a way whereby YOU can experience Love.  God is Love.  The creation of man, and the salvation plan for man is nothing but complete generosity on God's part for the benefit or charity to man.  If YOU, through the power of God, begin to Love, YOU are functioning in some degree as God functions.  If YOU learn to Love those who hate YOU, and harm YOU, with absolutely no benefit to YOU, YOU are Loving in charity as God Loves in charity.  That is the ultimate ultimate.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (KJV) Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Christian perfection is to completely love those who hate YOU, and want to harm YOU.

Matthew 5:43-48 (NIV) "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Stephen exhibited perfect agape love for his murderers when they were killing him.

Acts 7:55-60 (NIV)  But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.  "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."  At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.  While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."  Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.

If YOU hate someone, if YOU wish to harm someone, if YOU wish someone to go to Hell; then YOU have the spirit of the devil in YOU, because that is exactly and only what the devil wants. The devil has no desire more evil than that desire.

Because of God's complete charity, it is God's intent to reveal and share God with others.  In a familial trait, "Born Again" Children of God are charitable like God their Father is charitable, consequently, it is the intent of "Born Again" Children of God to reveal and share God with others.

Charity is Love, kindness, and support for those who will never be able to repay the Love, kindness, and support. 

God does not give financial support to those who are able and will not work; or support to those who are in sporadic trouble, because they will not consistently work:

2 Thessalonians 3:10 (NIV) For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."

God does not give financial support to those who will waste the gift:

Proverbs 17:16 (NIV) Of what use is money in the hand of a fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom?

God does not give complete protection to those who are consistently in trouble because they use poor judgment.  We must all learn from our good decisions, and we must all learn from our bad decisions.

Proverbs 19:19 (NIV) A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do it again.

Kindness to YOUR neighbor is not necessarily charity, that is only good judgment.  No wise person wants any kind of a war, and especially a war around his own home.

Charity is an act of assistance to someone who, while working as hard and diligently as they can, and while making decisions that are as wise as they are capable of making, still needs a helping hand to function properly in society.  YOUR helping hand may not be giving them money, YOUR helping hand may be counseling them on their decisions, or their work ethic.  It has been said, "If you give a man a fish, you will feed him for one day; but if you teach a man to fish, you will feed him for his whole lifetime."  To give fish to a man who can, but will not fish, is ignorant on the part of the giver, and abusive to the receiver.  To teach a man to fish is charity.  We must exercise good stewardship of what God has entrusted to our care.

Charity is giving wisely when there is no chance of ever receiving personal benefit of any kind in return. 

GOD IS PERFECT ORDER.

1 Corinthians 14:33a (NIV)  For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.

In the beginning, "the earth was without form, and void."  There was no order.  The earth was a chaotic and indistinguishable mass of sub-atomic elements.

Genesis 1:1-2 (KJV) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

On the first day of creation referenced below, God said "Let there be light."  When God said "Let there be light," God made a separation and a distinction between day and night.

Genesis 1:3-5 (NIV) And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.

The creation referenced above in Genesis 1:3-5 was not the creation of the sun, moon, and stars; as the sun, moon, and stars were created on the fourth day referenced below in Genesis 1:14-19:

Genesis 1:14-19 (NIV) And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the fourth day.

The creation of Genesis 1:3-5 printed above, was God creating order out of chaos.  When God said, "Let there be light," God created order from chaos.  God was imposing order on disorder.  God was creating peace out of disorder.  God was imposing Himself, His personality, and His order on the creation.  The light of the first day of creation was God imposing the order of Himself on the universe.

There is perfect order from the largest major collection of items in the entire universe to the smallest minute item in the entire universe.

“What is [the earth] most like?...It is most like a single cell.” – Lewis Thomas 1913-1993

A perfect example of the precise order of God's universe is the science of mathematics.  Mathematics is a reflection of the accuracy and consistency found in God's universe. Mathematics is accurate only when it reflects God's perfect order. One plus one always equals two.  One plus one never equals 1.999...  One plus one never equals 2.000001.  If one plus one did not always equal two, there would be no order or consistency with which to build the science of math. All science is the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, concerning God's perfect order.

As God is Perfect, there are no deviations or exceptions to God's perfect order. Everything physical and everything spiritual follows a formula set forth by God when God imposed Himself on the universe. God's perfect order was so complete that it effects adaptation within a species for better accommodation to the immediate physical surroundings of that species.  Even the minor adaptation of the Galapagos finches that Charles Darwin studied are following God's perfectly designed laws of physics. The finch's minor adaptation order is perfectly consistent with the minor adaptation of man; as the entire current population started with Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives. There would only be one race and one color of people in the world, if minor adaptation does not occur within God's perfect order. Man was created as a man, and is still a man. The finches were created finches and are still finches.  The minor adaptation of the finches and the minor adaptation of man is a reality.  The theory of evolution that asserts that man evolved from a one cell amoeba is a ridiculous myth from a fool.

There is not one single deviation from perfect order in the entire universe, either physically or spiritually; as God, the soul of the universe is perfect.  The single universe is in some respects a trinity of the physical realm, the spiritual realm, and the Soul.  There exists the physical realm that we can see.  There is the spiritual realm that we cannot see physically, but we know exists.  Few people will walk through a graveyard after dark without some emotional effect, thereby acknowledging some belief in the spiritual realm.  All of  the physical, and all of the spiritual that exists within the universe, emanates from the Soul who is God.  All physical laws are perfect and are perfectly consistent.  All spiritual laws are perfect and are perfectly consistent.  That is because God the Soul is Perfect and is perfectly consistent.

Under what conditions does God deviate from God's perfect physical and spiritual laws?  Under no conditions does God ever deviate from God's perfect physical and spiritual laws.  God does not lie, and God does not change God's laws:

1 Samuel 15:29 (NIV) He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind."

Hebrews 6:18 (NIV) God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

God is perfect and cannot deviate from perfection; physically or spiritually.

The redemption plan is spiritual law that is in compliance with the perfect order of God.

God imposed spiritual law, over physical law in the order of God.  The spiritual is always superior to the physical.

If YOU do not believe that spiritual laws supersede physical laws, then YOU cannot believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, and YOU cannot believe that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.  If YOU do not believe that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, then YOU cannot believe that Jesus Christ's Blood forgives YOUR sin, and YOU cannot believe that through faith in Jesus Christ YOU can stop sinning.

Romans 10:9-10 (NIV) That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

It is the vehicle of faith and prayer that God has established to alter or effect His perfect physical order.  The vehicle of faith in God and prayer to God, has the power to move the universe from God's permissive will, to God's perfect will. This aspect of God's law begins with the Holy Spirit of God directing the "Born Again" Child of God into prayer for what God's perfect will is.

Romans 8:26 (NIV) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

Through Romans 8:26 printed above, God as Commander in Chief assigns missions of faith to His soldiers.

Ephesians 6:10-18 (NIV)  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

God's soldiers use faith in God to fight in the spiritual war that is currently being waged.

Mark 11:22-24 (NIV) "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Because the "Born Again" Children of God are asking for what is in God's perfect will, God will answer that prayer.  In accordance with God's perfect order, God does not change something that is in God's permissive will into something that is in God's perfect will without the vehicle of faith and prayer

James 5:14-18 (NIV) Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

If someone makes a prayer request that is not in God's perfect will, the Holy Spirit of God did not intercede or lead into that prayer. If the prayer request is not in the perfect will of God, it is not in perfect love, and God will not fulfill that prayer request.

James 4:1-3 (NIV) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

God's soldiers of faith live by faith in God, and not by what they perceive through their five physical senses.  Physical laws, or what is seen physically is insignificant in spiritual warfare.

2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV) We live by faith, not by sight.

Romans 1:17 (NIV) For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

God allows the tempter to tempt the faith of the "Born Again" Children of God, because when their faith stands against the temptation to doubt, their faith is strengthened.

James 1:2-4 (NIV) Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

GOD POSSESSES LIGHT.

Daniel 2:22 (NIV)  He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. 

When God said, "Let there be light," order went out in every direction at the speed of light; and continues going out at the speed of light even now, 6,000 years later. Order was created from chaos at the speed of light.  Scientist have put forth that our universe is expanding at the speed of light.  From the first moment of creation, order came from disorder and expanded in every direction at the speed of light, and continues expanding even to this moment.  Call it a "Big Bang Theory" if you like, but it is more accurately described as the  "imposition of Light."

GOD IS LIGHT.

1 John 1:5 (NIV) This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

John 1:1-5 (NIV)  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

The speed of light is the fastest thing that man is physically aware of. (Albert Einstein's Time-Space Continuum asserts that if you can move faster than light, you can slow time or stop time.) If you can move faster than God's order, you can slow time or stop time.  Let's think for a minute; what chance is there of moving faster than God's order?  There is no chance.  When God said, "Let there be light", God established perfect order from the micro to the macro.

GOD CREATED TIME.

In setting up the order of the first day, God also wound the clock for days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millenniums, and the Seven Thousand Years of Measured Time.  There will be only Seven Thousand Years of Time, that God has measured out to the exact second; then God will restore eternity, and time will never exist again.

"The foundation of our faith is the belief that God created the Universe from nothing; that time did not exist previously, but was created." - Maimonides 1135-1204

GOD IS ENCIRCLED BY A RAINBOW.

The sun gives off heat and light from the exothermic reaction of the ignition and consumption of gases, a perfect physical/chemical reaction.  The gases of the sun are being consumed, and so the sun will theoretically ultimately burn itself out.  The light of the sun refracted through the moisture in the atmosphere on the earth creates a rainbow.  There is no rainbow immediately surrounding the sun, because the heat of the sun vaporizes the moisture in the atmosphere immediately around the sun.  A rainbow can only be visible many miles from the sun, where the moisture is not immediately vaporized.  The light of God is different than the light of the sun.  The light of God is not due to the ignition and consumption of gases, but due to the fact that, "God is light."  God is not being consumed.  The light of God is not necessarily hot.  The light of God does not vaporize the moisture of the atmosphere.  Because the light of God does not vaporize the moisture of the atmosphere, the light of God creates a rainbow surrounding God when God's light is refracted in the moisture of the atmosphere adjacent to God.  Consequently, God is surrounded by a rainbow.

Ezekiel 1:25-28 (NIV)  Then there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. 26 Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. 27 I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. 28 Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

WITHIN GOD'S PERFECT ORDER, IS PERFECT CAUSE AND EFFECT.  God's perfect order imposes perfect cause and effect into infinity. Perfect cause and effect exists in everything within the entire universe; from the entire universe as a whole to the smallest atom within every neutron, proton, and electron.  God's perfect cause and effect order exists from the micro of creation to the macro of creation.  For every action there is an opposite and exact reaction. Every action will create a reaction because of God's established order of cause and effect. Physical laws never change.

"To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts."  Sir Issac Newton 1642-1727

E=mc2  Albert Einstein 1879-1955

"The theory of probabilities is at bottom nothing but common sense reduced to calculus." - Pierre Simon de Laplace 1749-1827

Sir Isaac Newton's observations, Albert Einstein's formula, and Pierre Simon de Laplace's philosophy is still correct, because they all reflect the perfect order of God.

“Nature is but a name for an effect, Whose cause is God.” – William Cowper 1731-1800

In mathematics, physics, and all other sciences, you can see the perfect consistency of God's order. That cause and effect order is perfect from before the first moment of time until after time is no more. All science is the study of cause and effect in God's universe. If the universe were chaotic, where cause created inconsistent effect, we could not know and understand anything.

Darwinians teach that there is inconsistent cause and effect.  Darwinians teach that like causes will produce different effects.  Darwinian teaching is a description of chaos.  In the perfect order of God, an acorn will produce an oak tree into infinity.  An acorn will never produce a pecan tree.  When conditions are exactly the same, the reactions will always be exactly the same into infinity.  When man concludes that identical conditions have produced different reactions, it is because man is too insensitive and ignorant to realize that the conditions have changed.

"Errors are not in the art but in the artificers" Sir Issac Newton 1642-1727

WITHIN GOD'S PERFECT CAUSE AND EFFECT ORDER IS GOD'S JUSTICE. 

With the exception of man with man's free-will, there is not a single example of chaos anywhere in the universe. While man with man's free-will may be chaotic within himself, man is completely impacted by the order of God's perfect cause and effect.

Justice is a determination of Right and Wrong.  All humans have been wrong.

Romans 3:23 (NIV)  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

After Adam sinned, and prior to the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and subsequent giving of the Holy Spirit of God to man, man could not stop from sinning.  Consequently in accordance with God's perfect laws of the physical and spiritual, man died physically and man died spiritually.

Romans 3:23 (NIV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,...Romans 6:23a (NIV) For the wages of sin is death,

In God's perfect order, there is the effect of a penalty for every sin, just as there is the effect of a reward for not sinning.  The effect of every sin is that it steals, kills, and destroys the perpetrator of the sin, physically and spiritually for eternity.  The effect of sin is death.  All actions will produce like effects. When a person commits sin, they will be sentenced to death every single time.

Romans 6:23a (NIV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord

The reward for abstention from sin, is that sin does not steal, kill, and destroy the person; and the person achieves eternal life.

John 10:10 (NIV) "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

When a person commits a sin, God's perfect Justice demands that the sinful person die for that sin.  Adonai Elohiym - Lord God - took the form of the man Jesus Christ, lived a perfect life, and died as a sacrifice, thereby atoning for man's sins.  When Jesus Christ did this, Jesus Christ made the way for all people to completely satisfy the requirements of God's perfect Justice.  When a person accepts the Blood-Substitution Sacrifice of Jesus Christ as a substitute for the Justice requirement of the person's blood, that person is allowed into the presence of God.  When we are figuratively covered with the atonement of Jesus Christ's Blood, we are allowed to come into the presence of Elohiym (God the Father- Justice).  Jesus Christ (Adonai Elohiym - Lord God - Mercy) is now in Heaven interceding with God (Elohiym - Justice) for people.  Those who accept the gift of the Blood-Substitution-Sacrifice of Mercy are shielded from God's awesome Justice.  Of course, because of God's perfectly balanced order, if there is the opportunity for infinite bliss, there must also be the opportunity for infinite torment.  Those who do not accept the Blood-Substitution-Sacrifice of Jesus Christ - Mercy - will come naked and defenseless into the presence of Elohiym - God's Justice.  God's Justice will demand their own blood for their sins.

Hebrews 10:28-31 (NIV)  Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

WITHIN GOD'S PERFECT LOVE IS GOD'S MERCY. 

The Holy Word of God is the Message of God and the Reflection of God.  Jesus Christ is the Holy Word of God:

John 1:1-5 (NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Jesus Christ came, so that through faith in Him, YOU might abstain from sin, and thereby achieve eternal life.

Elohiym (God) is the English translation for the Hebrew word that Judeo-Christianity has traditionally perceived of as God the Father.  Adonai Elohiym (Lord God) is the English translation for the Hebrew word that Judeo-Christianity has traditionally perceived of as the Lord God, or Jesus Christ.  Because of Love, God separated Himself into Elohiym (God the Father - Justice), and Adonai Elohiym (Lord God - Jesus Christ - Mercy).  Mercy was always within and a part of God.  In Love, God birthed Mercy out of Himself prior to any creation in order for Mercy to act as a buffer between creation and Creator - because creation could not stand in God's Justice presence as God is completely Holy.  The Lord God took on the human form of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is therefore the personal manifestation of the Mercy of God.  

Elohiym (God) did not create Adonai Elohiym (Lord God - Jesus Christ) as that would mean that Jesus Christ had a beginning, and that there was a time when Jesus Christ was not:

Hebrews 13:8 (NIV)  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

John 1:1-5 (NIV)  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, consequently, the Holy Spirit of God is the Spirit of Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is all the fullness of the deity in human form.

Colossians 2:9-17 (NIV)  For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

God birthed Mercy (The Lord God) out of Himself in a like manner that Eve was birthed out of Adam. 

Genesis 2:21-23 (NIV)  So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."

The woman who was originally a part of and within man, was birthed out of man; but the woman becomes one with man again during sexual intercourse.

Genesis 2:24 (NIV)  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

The Lord God was birthed out of God, but through spiritual intercourse the Lord God reentered God and became one with God.

John 10:30 (NIV) "I and the Father are one."

John 10:37-38 (NIV)  "Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does.  But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."

John 14:6-11 (NIV)  Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves."

Jesus Christ brings the "Born Again" Children of God with Him into spiritual intercourse with God.

John 14:20 (NIV)  "On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you."

John 17:20-23 (NIV)  "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

John 20:17 (NIV)  Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

The ultimate physical pleasure is sexual intercourse.  Adam and Eve proved this truth when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden, as the first thing Adam and Eve did after being cast out of the Garden of Eden was to have sexual intercourse (Genesis 4:1).  The devil tempts man to indulge in this God-given ultimate physical pleasure outside of God's directions, thereby making the ultimate physical pleasure into something sinful.  Sex is the number one marketing tool of the devil because it is the ultimate physical pleasure. 

THE ULTIMATE SELF INDULGENCE IS SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE WITH GOD.

IT IS ONLY THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST THAT YOU ARE ALLOWED THE ULTIMATE SELF-INDULGENCE!

It is to have intercourse with: DAYSPRING, EL SHADDAI, ETERNAL, FAITHFUL, GENTLE, GOOD, HOLY, IMMANUEL, INFINITE, JEHOVAH-ELYON, JEHOVAH-JIREH, JEHOVAH- MEKADDISHKEN, JEHOVAH-NISSI, JEHOVAH-RAAH, JEHOVAH-ROPHEKA, JEHOVAH-SABAOTH, JEHOVAH-SHALOM, JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH, JEHOVAH-TSID-KENU, JOY, JUST, KIND, LOVE, MERCY, OMNIPOTENT, OMNIPRESENT, OMNISCIENT, ORDER, OUR FATHER, PATIENT, PEACE, PERFECT, PURE, RIGHTEOUS, SELF CONTROLLED, SHILOH, the ADVOCATE, the ALMIGHTY, the ALPHA AND OMEGA, the AMEN, the ANCHOR, the AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH, the BELOVED, the BRANCH, the BREAD OF LIFE, the BRIDEGROOM, the BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR, the CARPENTER, the CHIEF CORNERSTONE, the CHIEF SHEPHERD, the DOOR, the EVERLASTING FATHER, the FAITHFUL AND TRUE WITNESS, the GOOD SHEPHERD, the GOVERNOR, the GREAT CREATOR, the HEAD OF THE CHURCH, the HIGH PRIEST, the HOLY ONE, the HORN OF SALVATION, the I AM, the IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD, the JUDGE, the KING OF KINGS, the KING OF LIFE, the KING OF THE JEWS, the LAMB OF GOD, the LIFE, the LIGHT OF THE WORLD, the LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH, the LIVING WATER, the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, the LORD JESUS CHRIST, the LORD OF ALL, the LORD OF LORDS, the MAN OF SORROWS, the MASTER, the MEDIATOR, the MESSIAH, the MIGHTY GOD, the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, the PRINCE OF PEACE, the PROPHET, the REDEEMER, the RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE, the RIGHTEOUS JUDGE, the ROCK, the ROOT OF DAVID, the ROSE OF SHARON, the SAVIOR, the SERVANT, the SHEPHERD AND BISHOP OF SOULS, the SON OF MAN, the TEACHER, the TRUE VINE, the TRUTH, the WAY, the WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, the WORD, the WORD OF LIFE...

INFINITELY AND ETERNALLY!

Spiritual intercourse with God is a honeymoon wedding night multiplied to infinity, that will last eternally. 

2 Corinthians 11:2 (NIV) I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.

Ephesians 5:23-32 (NIV) For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- 30 for we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Revelation 19:6-9 (NIV) Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) 9 Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!'" And he added, "These are the true words of God."

To compare and contrast two things, you must be able to grasp the limits of the things you are comparing.  I cannot compare and contrast the Muslim reward of seventy-seven virgins with the joy of spiritual intercourse with God, as I cannot fully grasp eternal spiritual intercourse with God.  I can grasp the Muslim reward of seventy-seven virgins, and that reward is bat dung.  Seventy-seven virgins is the highest pleasure that the natural man can conceive in his mind.  It does not take the Holy Spirit of God to conceive of that pleasure; a hormonal swine can think that big.  A person can avail themselves of seventy-seven virgins here on earth even if they are a Godless, wicked, selfish, ignorant, ugly, insane, terrorist.

The finest privilege, the greatest blessing, the highest development for a man, is the worship of God.  The worship of God is only, and precisely what separates mankind from the animal kingdom.  Any person who fails to worship God is dwelling in retarded development with no practical difference in function than a swine.  Because Allah is the devil, no Muslim is able to have spiritual intercourse with God.  All Muslims function physically at the exact same level that a swine functions at.  Any human who fails to worship God through faith in Jesus Christ is functioning exactly like an animal; they are functioning like a brute beast.  In the Book of Daniel, chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar is an example of a human who failed to acknowledge and worship God, and in fact was worshipping Nebuchadnezzar's accomplishments and worshipping himself.  God showed Nebuchadnezzar that without God, Nebuchadnezzar was just another beast of the field.

GOD IS LOVE.  While we can see a reflection of God in God's cause and effect order which includes His justice, mercy, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience; we cannot see God Himself. God is the giver and sustainer of life.  God is the mystical force that began life and order.

1 John 4:8b (NIV)  God is love.

1 John 4:7-21 (NIV)  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.  We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

John 15:9-17 (NIV)  "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other."

2 John 1:5-6 (NIV)  And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.  And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

If we truly understood how much God completely loves us, we would fall down and instantly worship Him. Prayer begins with focusing on God, and reviewing in our heart and mind what we know about God. This will lead into repentance for our sins, and then into worship of God. Worship of God will lead into communion with God. When you enter into communion with God, He is a consuming fire and a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 4:24 (NIV)  For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

God will burn all of the dross out of your heart. This must occur on a daily basis, as the dross is like a weed and will grow back. The longer you go between cleansings, the greater the growth of dross.

Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV)  Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. 'All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

We are to "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment."

God is certainly worthy of our love. For a moment, attempt to fathom the depth of the God's love. When God the Father allowed His Son to be Crucified, it required far greater commitment and love than for God the Father to allow Himself to be crucified. Any good parent would rather be sick themselves, than to have their child sick. If a parent was given the choice to be mutilated and killed at the hands of criminals, or to watch while their child was mutilated and killed at the hands of criminals, no worthy parent would have any trouble at all in making that choice. It would be far more difficult to send your child out and then stand by and watch while your child was mutilated and killed by criminals, than to accept the punishment and death for yourself. It would be exponentially more difficult if that parent had all knowledge (full awareness of the situation) and all power (omnipotence) to stop the horror. To choose to not exercise that power required unfathomable self restraint/control/Love. Because God's love for His Son is infinitely greater than our love for our child, because God's knowledge and understanding of everything is infinitely greater than our knowledge and understanding of anything, because God's power is infinitely greater than our power and God could have stopped the mutilation/Crucifixion at any time; the price that God paid in order to create the only redemption plan, is infinitely beyond our human comprehension. For a human to attempt to fathom God's love is withering. THEN CONSIDER THAT GOD GETS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OUT OF IT. 

Job 22:2-3 (NIV)  "Can a man be of benefit to God?  Can even a wise man benefit him?  What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous?  What would he gain if your ways were blameless?

God loves me and you as much as God loves Jesus Christ.

John 17:23b,c (NIV)  "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

If God loves me as much as God loves Jesus Christ, that means that God's love is not effected by whom it is directed at! 

All of creation is in perfect synchronization with God, except lawless free-willed humans.  When you crucify your self-will and are consequently filled with the Holy Spirit of God, you become synchronized with God and the entire universe except the lawless humans.  It becomes your privilege and function to mirror the love of God, irrespective of the position or reaction of the person to which your love is being directed.

Selflessness does not necessarily mean the presence of love. Selflessness may be a reflection of love, but in and of itself, it is not love. One can be selfless, but still not love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NIV)  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

A person could be totally selfless and still not have love, because love is not self generated. Love comes from and is a reflection of God. There are missionary's who have spent their lives on foreign fields who have produced nothing for Jesus Christ. While they may be personally socially accepted among the people that they have spent their lives with, these missionaries have effected no movement to Jesus Christ among the targeted people, because these missionaries have never been born of the Holy Spirit of God. Consequently, they cannot produce fruit from the Holy Spirit of God. These missionaries simply cannot give something that they do not have.

John 15:1-5 (NIV)  "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

1 John 4:19 (NIV)  We love because he first loved us.

In Matthew 5:46-48, Jesus Christ does not even mention eros or receiving, selfish love.  Jesus Christ mentions filial or reciprocating, brotherly love twice, but Jesus Christ advises us that "tax collectors" and "pagans" are capable of that form of love.

WE ARE DIRECTED BY JESUS CHRIST TO BE PERFECT IN (AGAPE) LOVE AS OUR FATHER IS PERFECT IN (AGAPE) LOVE.